Wait, What?! Cole Sprouse Was Originally Going To Play Archie in "Riverdale"

Cole Sprouse (Jughead)

Cole Sprouse wasn't originally interested in Riverdale at all. He was working at an archaelogy lab in Brooklyn when his agent sent him the script. "At first... I was immediately turned off," he told WWD. "But in more recent years, Archie comics have tried to stray away from the 'golly, shucks Arch, let’s go to the sock hop' thing." (The original Archie Comics don't necessarily have Riverdale's dark edge.)

Cole was asked to read for the role of Archie. But he fell in love with Jughead's character instead. "He’s very much an outsider," Cole told WWD. "He has a pretty unique perspective because he’s seeing the town and the friendship and the friendships that are forming from a more objective point of view. He eavesdrops, he listens, he’s the guy with the camera, snooping, sleuthing, and in that way, he’s distanced himself from a lot of the people in the town, through his own fear of being vulnerable and his inability to cope with people."

Cole wanted to play Jughead to challenge himself after The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. "Jughead is so different from Cody, who I played just before, and so different from most of the other roles I played, as a child star," he told Collider.com. "I really wanted to see if I could do that, as a challenge to myself.

Camila Mendes (Veronica)

Camila's version of Veronica is inspired by Gossip Girl's Blair Waldorf and The O.C.'s Summer Roberts. "Even when I auditioned, I remember when I first went in, I was dressed really dark, more like an edgy rocker girl from New York," she told AVClub.com. "They’re like, 'No, no, no, this girl is preppy.' So the next day at the audition, I went with the little skirt thing, and they’re like, 'Wherever you can wear pearls, wear them.' I was like, 'Oh, I see.' They’re like, 'Think Blair Waldorf.' So then I came up the next day looking more like Blair Waldorf. And I was like,' Okay, now I understand who she is and in the context of the characters we’ve already grown up with.'" But when it comes to Veronica's humor, she says, "I channel Summer Roberts a lot."

All of Camila's friends predicted she'd wind up playing a character like Veronica. "It’s really funny, because in college, my people would always say — people who didn’t even know each other — separately would be like, 'I can just see you on the CW,'" she told AVClub.com. "Me and one of my good friends had an inside joke where I’m like, 'You’re the HBO to my CW.' We would always say that to each other. And eventually, I booked a CW show not too long after that, and everyone died, because they were like, 'We literally have been telling you all year that you belong on The CW. We could see you playing the popular pretty girl on a CW show.' And then I’m playing Veronica."

Cole and Camila attended NYU at the same time. She says they "crossed paths at parties," but he claims he doesn't remember meeting her then.

Lili Reinhart (Betty)

Lili Reinhart had an incredibly emotional reaction to the casting news. "I started crying," she said to Collider.com about getting cast as Betty. "I knew that my life changed, in that moment. I was with my friend, when I got the call, and when I hung up he was like, 'I just watched your life change, in front of my eyes.' It really did." (Does that give you chills? I just got chills.)

Lili lives with Madelaine Petsch, who plays Cheryl. They share a home in Vancouver, where the show is filmed.

She's rumored to be dating Cole. Check out how they low-key hold hands during an interview and try not to freak out.

KJ Apa (Archie)

KJ is a natural brunette, so he bleaches and dyes his hair every two weeks to play Archie — and one time, he accidentally burned holes into his eyebrows. "They ended up bleaching my eyebrows, and I had two holes — they burnt into my skin," he told Vulture. "It was pretty gnarly."

The creators specifically wanted Archie to be very attractive — more attractive than he is in the comic books. Please enjoy this hilarious quote from showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, speaking to AVClub.com: "It’s great to have a hot Archie." Um, duh.

KJ grew up watching The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. "I wasn't sure what [Cole] would be like," he admitted. But when Cole sent him a congratulatory Twitter DM after KJ got cast as Archie, KJ knew Cole was a "good guy."

Hannah Orenstein is the Assistant Features Editor at Seventeen.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram!

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